Sports vs. Santa Cruz

And there I was in a car with 4 brasileiros (Brazilianmen...), dressed in red and black (the colours ofSports), on my way to the footbal match Sports- SantaCruz! Despite some serious warnings (it can be alittle dangerous - that´s why I didn´t told my motherbefore... just kidding) I decided that I couldn´t missthis game. Recife has 3 major footbal clubs: Sports(the one I would be cheering for), Santa Cruz andNautico (I am not sure how to write this last one).This Sunday Sports and Santa Cruz would be playing andit was an important match considering thechampionships. So it would be THE game for me to visithere. Going around Recife that morning, I already spottedmany brasileiros (hardly any brasileiras) dressed ineither black and red or black-white-red (= Santa Cruz)and loads of cars going around with huge flags out oftheir windows and all kinds of other decorations thatare devoted to one of the clubs... But, on our way tothe Santa Cruz stadium (which is the more dangerousone, because of the way things are organised with thesuporters) we passed many, many more... supporterseverywhere! Cars ´horning´(is that an English word?!)the song of their club, fans shouting slogans,whatsoever... One moment I started to doubt if it wasa good idea for me to visit this game... Totalmadness! :) When comming near the stadium, roads were full of fansof both clubs, but interverances seemed friendly. Weparked the car and walked to the station... me in themiddle (I had 4 bodyguards to protect me :) they weretaking such good care of me!). The crowd was huge!Before entering we saw a few small fights and somefans being knocked down seriously by the police. We entered the stadium without passing any ticketcontrol, boughts some cervejas -ofcourse! - (but Istarted with some water and a some meat :)) and foundour places between the crowd. There were no chairs,only concrete to stand on... We came early to get somegood seats, so we had to wait a while till the gamestarted. But, the time went so fast, I loved it - justlooking around! The game, the crowd (I don´t think Iexagerate if I would say there were about 99%brasileiros... it´s a man thing, in a machismocountry...). In the first half ´our´ team scored...wow! I didn´t know where to look (that´s a problem Iactually had during the whole game, there was so muchto see)... the crowd was going wild! Huging eachother(and me), dancing, screaming, fireworks, flags...Muito legal! Before I knew it we were 45 minutes and some cervejasfurther... 1-0 for Sports. In the break some juniorplayers of Santa Cruz played a game and I got somemore information about the game, the stadium, thesupporters... For example, like we have the F-side (Idon´t know nothing about footbal, but I guess it isnamed like that...) they have some die-hard supportersin Brasil as well. These supporters have differentshirts and are located on opposite sides of thestadium, behind the goals. Looking from where we werestanding we saw them dancing - like a huge wave... Iwas happy not to be standing there! But I lookedimpressive! The game started again and being more used to theenvironment I got more concentrated and really gotinto the game. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes beforethe end Santa Cruz made a goal (a lot of poha´s (whichmeans something like bullshit) among the Sportssupporters... I heard loads of them anyway during thegame) and the game ended with 1- 1 (which appeared tobe not such a negative score for Sports -I will spareyou the details...). When the game ended we had to wait about 20 minutesfor the Santa Cruz supporters to get out of thestadium. I saw the ME (as we call it in Holland, themilitary unit of the police) escorting the ... (I haveno idea... the guy that blows the wistle and hishelpers... hihi)from the field. During the game therewere also some angry looking policemen watching thecrowd - so I decided not to jump unto the field... :).Anyway, while waiting, some small fights appeared(among Sports supporters...) but before I knew it Iwas transported to the other side - I felt so safewith my bodyguards!!! :) After the 20 minutes we gotout of the stadium safely and ended up drinking(another) cerveja on the street, while streets werefull of cars, so we would have to wait anyway.Afterwards we had dinner and some more cervejas at arestaurant and then they brought me home safely... I must say this was an amazing experience, I don´tknow if you can feel a little bit of the vibe... but,I can tell you, if you go to Brasil - visit a game! Well... I know Jamerson will read this - and I hopeyou are satified with my report (you already asked forit before - but I didn´t gave you a good answer Ithink, here it is...). Is it different that youthought it would be/ I experienced it?! :) Thanks forinviting me, and I think I will join you again onWednesday, this time in the Sports stadium!!! :)
Beijos,Hil